Group G's General Discussion Thread

Got back from the match. Great atmosphere. Mostly Egyptian fans. Egypt were clearly the better side and showed great character to go down at halftime comeback and score 3 goals. New Zelaands biggest threat came from the air.

People doubted this team, myself included, but they showed their recent form starting from the last afcon is not a fluke.

 

IMO, in the first half, New Zealand were the better team but Egypt dominated the second half.

I have to congratulate Egypt on their first ever World Cup win. I hope they won't have another win the celebrate in this group and suffer their first loss against Iran

 

New Zealand looked better early on, they scored and then sat back with Egypt controlling posession looming for the equalizer, but Their attack lacked any bite.

2nd half Egypt came out strong, once Egypt equalized, New Zealand had momentum for a few minutes before Egypt took over for pretty much the rest of the match.

 

Iran will have the toughest time against Egypt (compared to against New Zealand and Belgium). Egypt is perhaps a bit weaker defensively than Belgium but have a stronger offense and can unlock Iran's defense. But now that Egypt pretty much clinched qualification, maybe they subconsciously will not be as motivated to win against Iran. Even if Egypt draws Iran they will likely top the group.

 

True. But possession is not telling if you ae trailing and your attack lacks any bite.

Egypt did well enough in the second half. New Zealand showed to me the kind of side that can crumble if it is trailing. They were petty good before it became 2:1.

 

I think a tie would even see Iran through, because you would be on 0 gial difference, and I saw projections that 3 points with even a slightly negative difference would get you through.

Lots of teams in other groups won't even get a win it looks.

 

That second Egypt goal by Salah was a beautiful one, superb combination play inside the NZ penalty area capped by a brilliant shot.

 

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To that point, teams in this group have a bit of an advantage because they'll have a good idea what they need to ensure being one of the best third-place teams.

 

Even that will be rare. There is more of a chance Iran will lose to Egypt.

 

Iran will beat Egypt just like the Uzbeks beat them their style suits us we need to start ghayedi so he could do what uranov did to them.

 

If Iran ties Egypt, Iran will have 3 points with non-negative goal differential and most likely either become the 8th or 9th ranked 3rd place team.

Half of the groups are done. 4 3rd place teams have 4 points. All the ones with 3 points have negative goal differential. So there are 4 spots left in the top 8. There are 6 remaining 3rd place teams. Croatia will highly likely get at least a point against Ghana. So let's say 3 spots left. It is between Capo verde/saudi, Algeria, Congo, and Iran.

I would still play for a draw against Egypt, it is still our best chance of advancing. Though overall I think all of this will be a moot point because I think we will lose to Egypt. If we park the bus, Salah and others can still score. If we attack, we will lose. I think the best thing is to defend but not as much as and not as deep as in the Belgium game.

But in the very rare case Iran beats Egypt, it would result in playing a 3rd place team in the round of 32, or even if Belgium beats New Zealand by more than 2 goals (which is unlikely) Australia, which on both cases would give a hope of advancing at least via penalties, as opposed to Switzerland or France (which is the path if 3rd place), which would be definite defeat.

 

Now that it looks like Senegal is going to beat Iraq by at least 3 goals, this means Iran will be very unlikely to qualify with 3 points. First Ecuador now Senegal. This is why you can't leave things up to chance and have to beat teams like New Zealand.

 

The Saudi and Uruguay results negated the damage from Senegal. Now, Iran will be more likely than not to qualify with a draw against Egypt. Aside from Iran, there are 3 other groups with contenders for the remaining top 8 3rd place spots. That means as long as just one of those groups happens in a way that their 3rd place team does not get 4+ points or 3 points with high scoring non negative goal differential, Iran is through with a draw against Egypt.

In practice, this means if one of the following happen, Iran is through with a draw: Algeria does not beat Austria. Congo does not beat Uzbekistan, Croatia loses to Ghana.

 

Uniforms for each game are too similar.


Gonna confuse the heck out of me watching the matches side- by -side.
( I know, first world problems. )

 

Egypt looking to win this group. Already up 1-0.

 

As I predicted Egypt would definitely score on us and have a better offense than Belgium, and that exactly happened. And I said I warned, I said we should not defend too deep because Egypt will find a way through. But Ghalenoie the most incompetent TM is in charge so there is no hope. As I said, this, not the Belgium match, would be the toughest, and we would most certainly lose.

 

Penalty saved. Iran with a huge missed opportunity.

 

That was not a penalty going by the standards of this world cup.

There's been 4 or 5 far worse than that not called.

 

Taremi needs to get subbed and go directly into retirement just because of that penalty.

 

1=1

 

It was a bit harsh but a penalty.

 

As I also predicted, while Egypt's offense is stronger than Belgium's, their defense is weaker and we can score. So 1-1. I had predicted 2-1 for Egypt. I would still be highly surprised that Egypt does not win (i.e., score more than we score on them). Maybe if we get lucky and score a last minute goal we can get a 2-2 or 3-3 draw or something.

Rezaian is now arguably the best Iranian world cup player of all time, and the highest goal scorer. Strange that it is a right back who does this.